“The omicron variant seems to have a higher transmissibility, but also is less likely to cause serious symptoms,” Kishida said to reporters at the Prime Minister’s Office. “But if the infection spreads rapidly among the elderly, the percentage of people who become seriously ill could increase.”
Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward started giving third COVID-19 vaccine shots to residents aged 65 or over Friday, at a time when the highly contagious omicron variant of the novel coronavirus is spreading in many parts of Japan.
The southwestern Japan city of Fukuoka began to give a third shot of novel coronavirus vaccines Wednesday, earlier than initially planned, to residents aged 65 or over.
On December 24th, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced the results of a survey that the number of cases of abuse of elderly people at home in 2020 increased by 2.1% from the previous year to 17,281 cases, a record high. There were 25 deaths, an increase of 10 from the previous year.
Former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, former internal affairs minister Sanae Takaichi and former gender equality minister Seiko Noda said in an online town hall meeting for the Sept. 29 presidential election of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party that more people aged 65 and older should continue to work and pay pension premiums.
Elderly men totaled 15.83 million, or 26 pct of the total male population. There were 20.57 million elderly women, or 32 pct of the female population.
The ministry released the data ahead of Respect for the Aged Day on Monday, a national holiday.
Progress in the COVID-19 vaccination campaign may have prevented more than 8,000 deaths of people 65 or older and spared more than 100,000 elderly people from novel coronavirus infection in July and August, according to an estimate compiled by Japan’s Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry.
Specifically, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry will provide financial assistance to prefectural governments to help them conduct disaster training programs targeting managers and senior staff workers of special and group homes for elderly people.
“The number of seriously ill patients in the 40-to-early 60s age range is increasing, so it is necessary to speed up vaccinations. If this generation gets vaccinated, then the younger generations, which include their children, will be more willing to get the vaccine.”
Public prosecutors demanded a prison term of seven years on Thursday for a 90-year-old former senior Japanese government official over a high-profile fatal runaway car accident in Tokyo in 2019.
Barrier Free Japan